This was the contents of an 8 year olds lunchbox.

[IAm1]

Nutella sandwich
Bar of dairy milk
Pot of joy
2 custard creams
Cheese string.

Dd asked me if she could have a big chocolate bar in her lunch box. I said no so she declared that Chloe gets all of the above.

I didn't believe her at first but when dd said at the school gates ' my mum doesn't believe you get a whole chocolate bar for lunch'
Chloe nodded and showed me the contents. Her mum stood smiling and nodding and I felt embarrassed.

I didn't really know what to say so just laughed and said goodbye to dd then walked off.

Would you feed your dc that?

It’s not your child. End of thread.

@Pelleas

What's a 'pot of joy'? I think I need a pot of joy ...

Me too.

'Pot of Joy' sounds like something so many of us need at the moment.

It's not great, but what can you do about it?

DD does her own packed lunch. I check it over afterwards and change as necessary. Today the original version was:
a banana
a snack sized chocolate bar
a large amount of plain (cooked) puff pastry

and that's it. To be fair, she usually does better.

Well this has prompted me to investigate pots of joy, which sound awesome.

Thanks, op!

Is the child obese, hyperactive or suffering from tooth decay?

If not, I couldn't get too worked up over what other people choose to feed their children. My friend never lets her kids have sweets and chocolate. We allow a small amount of chocolate as a regular treat, but don't give juice at meals or allow fizzy drinks (which she does). Who's right? Who cares?

I wouldn't be concerned about what is in another child lunchbox.

I always open these threads expecting to see my DD lunch box contents. She has ASD and she has very limited foods that she will eat. They tend to be beige and/or high in sugar/salt. We do our best to try and limit it to some extent, but our first priority is that she is fed.

She is also a school refuser, historically (she is in year 4 and age 8) so we do everything we can to make school a good place, a safe place and that means eating safe foods there.

I imagine many on MN would be horrified to know what she eats of a day and give me all sorts of tips like is she's hungry she'll eat (no she won't). Just wind your neck in and stop judging. Parenting is hard enough as it is.

Not that's neglect

No , that is neglect rather ! Far too much sugar

I always find it strange that lunchtime supervisors have the time to go through every child's lunchbox with a fine tooth comb. Surely some items are wrapped up? Or do they make every child open their box for an inspection??

@BreathlessCommotion I hear you. I have a child with a restricted diet and it's a bloody nightmare to get her to eat reasonably healthily. She's older now (17) and starting to get a bit better but it's very hard.

And yes bollocks to 'they'll eat when they're hungry'. Some children really don't.

@Fink lol, one day my daughter offered to pack her own lunch, when I checked (she was 6 at the time) she had a carrot, some cheese and biscuits and an freezer block sitting at a funny angle, when I checked under the freezer block there was a super dooper icy pole lol.

I had a sneaking suspicion that she had an ulterior motive when she offered to pack her own lunch haha.

I always find it strange that lunchtime supervisors have the time to go through every child's lunchbox with a fine tooth comb. Surely some items are wrapped up? Or do they make every child open their box for an inspection??

I have a 1:1 child I supervise but I'm also responsible for the rest of the class too (there are 2 of us but both have 1:1's, the other dc is more challenging at lunchtimes so I do a bit more) I can tell you each day what each child has and how much they have eaten. (I don't do this to police their lunch by the way, we don't allow sweets but there is no rules on chocolate, biscuits or nuts) to make sure they've eaten a reasonable amount before they go out to play as many are desperate to get out with their friends. It's a very deprived area where many families are reliant on foodbanks and food parcels we send home from school with the dc so there is no judgment here. The boy I take care of his lunch box generally contains 2 dry brioche or a croissant, a packet of crisps and a wrapped cake/cake bar and sometimes a doughnut. I give him a jelly from the school lunches as he loves it and he'll occasionally eat a bit of a tangerine but that's rare. His mum worried constantly but it really is all he'll eat.

What has it got to do with you OP? Are you stuck for something to do that you are overly invested in another child's lunch?

@AlternativePerspective

Also it’s worth bearing in mind that the anaphylaxis campaign are strongly against nut bans as children often enter secondary (where nuts are never banned as it’s unenforceable) the children are unable to consider their allergies since these will have been micro managed for them until now.

They are banned in our secondary.

@Pelleas l need some pots of job as well!

Yep it’s impressive the nearly zero nutrition value in that lunch. Still confused about the obesity epidemic and the link to lunches like that and / or driving your child everywhere

Same here, nuts are banned in our dc's secondary too.
I don't understand why it's unenforceable in secondary, it not difficult for children to understand it could be life or death for some people.

.

Maybe tell your daughter other people's lunch boxes are none of her business... or yours for that matter

@REDLIPSTICKANDNAILS

What has it got to do with you OP? Are you stuck for something to do that you are overly invested in another child's lunch?

no, her dd is asking for a similar lunch

Still confused about the obesity epidemic and the link to lunches like that and / or driving your child everywhere

Are you being serious or sarcastic @EL8888 ?

Really confused?

So you are completely unaware of how eating patterns laid down in childhood tend to persist into adulthood?

How children who live off junk food continue to eat that as adults and give it to their own children?

How feeding children tonnes of sugar creates an addiction to it?
(Have a search for a US Youtube video which shows how sugar addiction is like tobacco addiction.)

How driving a child everywhere means they see that as the norm and end up never walking anywhere or doing any exercise? Like some parents where I live who drive half a mile to the school gate.

DC's school is also nut-free. Even if there isn't a child in school with a known allergy (in our case there is), given nuts are among the commoner potentially life-threatening allergens I don't think it's unreasonable to monitor lunchbox contents to ensure this policy is enforced.

As to the other rigorous policing of children's diets (not least because the actual stuff produced in school kitchens is less than ideal [ketchup?]) my views are less strong. The interference of Nanny State into every facet of family life - checking lunchbox contents, reporting neighbours' comings and goings in response to random Covid regulations, enforcing circumstances in which the state, not parents, judge when it's in our children's best interests to take them out of school - are not ideal ways to run a supposedly 'free' society. My American friend was amazed that UK citizens are prepared to go along with the policies dreamed up by that worst of Education Secretaries Michael Gove without major pushback. I can see why.

And here in this thread we have an OP who posts the contents of another kid's lunchbox in the hope that other site members will through up our hands in horror and agree that 'ohhhh, isn't she awwwweful!'

Not saying it's an ideal lunch; I don't think many people would say otherwise. But I also find this sort of attitude really distasteful.

I love a pot of joy!

My son went through a phase of not wanting any breakfast, the only way I could get some food into him before nursery was to make him pancakes with a tiny drizzle of syrup.
I heard him parrot the phrase "pancakes? That's not a healthy choice" while he was playing and I felt so judged!

I am very disappointed that none of the wonderful healthy lunches boasted about described in this thread feature quinoa or chia seeds. What is the world coming to? You are all horrible neglectful parents and I am wonderful, and my imaginary child agrees that my lovely healthy lunches are vastly superior to his schoolmates' nasty sugar-fulled junk.

Also, these dreadful-sounding pots of joy - do they make them supersized? Like, big enough to swim in? Because I think I could use some of that right now.

@JinglingHellsBells definitely being sarcastic. In reality l think those links are obvious. Who wants to set their child up for a lifetime of obesity, poor nutrition and possibly impaired health